NCLB transfers left without busing in BASD

Bethlehem Area will not provide transportation for students who switch from poorly performing schools.

August 06, 2013|By Adam Clark, Of The Morning Call

Bethlehem Area School District students who were allowed to transfer from poorly performing schools under No Child Left Behind will have to find their own transportation if they want to continue attending their new school.

Pennsylvania is confident that its waiver for the federal No Child Left Behind law will be approved and the state Department of Education recently informed districts they will no longer be mandated to provide transportation for students who switched schools within the district, Superintendent Joseph Roy said Monday.

There are 154 Bethlehem students who changed schools because their home school consistently failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress on the annual PSSA tests, according to the district.

Those students have the option to return to their home school and receive district transportation, Roy said. Otherwise, students will have to walk or find their own ride and the district will save about $30,000 by not providing transportation, Roy said.

Naomi Stocker, a mother from Freemansburg, said that without busing her son will have to cross Easton Avenue near Keystone Pub to get to East Hillls Middle School. Stocker decided to send her son to East Hills last year because of Northeast Middle School's low PSSA scores.

'It's not just my son that you have affected," Stocker said at Monday's school board committee meetings. "You probably affected a hundred other kids and families who don't want to voice their opinion because they are afraid to."

If Stocker drove her son to school, she would have to drop him off about 40 minutes early, which is frowned upon by the district, she said.

Under the No Child Left Behind waiver, no more students will be allowed to transfer because of poor PSSA scores but students who already transferred have the right to finish their time at their current school.

Students were allowed to transfer from Donegan and Fountain Hill elementary schools and Broughal and Northeast middle schools last year, Roy said.

It wouldn't be fair for the district to continue busing the No Child Left Behind transfer students because it doesn't bus about 400 other students who attend different elementary schools under the schools' "open enrollment" policy, Roy said. Students have long been allowed to attend any elementary school within the district in exchange for giving up transportation.

It would also be too expensive to begin busing all of the open enrollment students, Roy said.

School Director Aurea Ortiz said the district should try to find a way to continue busing the students who switched because of the PSSA scores. But Director Gene McKeon said that would prompt parents of open enrollment students to demand busing.

"I'd be banging on the door the next morning," McKeon said.

Roy said the quality of teaching is the same at all of the district's schools and the PSSA scores are a reflection of other factors, such as poverty rates, that affect student performance.